About William Biddle, III

He and his youngest brother John removed to Philadelphia prior to 1730 and are the progenitors of a majority of the large number of Biddies now resident in that city. His wife was the daughter of Nicholas Scull, surveyor general of Pennsylvania from 1748 to 1761, who, in connection with Thomas Cookson, deputy surveyor, laid out the town of Carlisle in the spring of 1751. In Franklin's Autobiography, Nicholas Scull is referred to as one "who loved books and who sometimes made verses." His daughter Mary inherited his poetic faculty and a number of her metrical productions are still preserved.